factor here is the restoration of calm and direct dialogue. what we need now is on all sides in this matter, cool heads and really a calm approach to this. yes? >> thank you, martin. there are some reports that the leader of the radical opposition on the ukraine called for leader of chechen terrorists to support ukrainian opposition against russia. does the secretary general have anything to say on this development? >> look, there are all kinds of reports, some more credible than others. floating about in cyberspace. and i think that we continue to monitor these developments closely. we're aware of various reports

but we're not going to comment on every individual one that pops up like that. yes? >> one follow-up. this is official. the governor of belgrade region in russia reported that there ar are thousands of ukraine fleeing into this region of russia. does the secretary general plan to discuss this issue with vladimir putinputin, maybe some support for the refugees from the united nations? >> i think the secretary general wants to speak to president putin directly to express his concerns. but also to hear directly from president putin his assessment of the situation. now, with regard to refugees, this is something that if substantiated would be for the refugee agency to look at.

i would then reeffer you to the refugee agency. okay, if there are no other questions, thank you very much. >> so there he is, the spokesman for the united nations secretary general ban ki-moon, speaking on behalf of the secretary general, saying that ban ki-moon is gravely concerned about what's going on right now, a it's the hope that cool heads will prevail, there will be a calm approach, it is said that ban ki-moon will be speaking to the russian president vladimir putin to discuss what's going on. we're following the breaking news out of ukraine, tensions developing now between the u.s. and other countries, it's a serious situation. let's bring in our united nations correspondent richard roth. richard, you're over at the u.n., as we have been pointing

out, ban ki-moon can make all sorts of statements, the u.n. security council can -- there's a limit to what actually is going to emerge other than a few statements. >> russia would certainly block any significant action by the u.n. security council however they did meet, russian met the u.n. security council yesterday, despite what they could say publicly to the press, and we don't know what goes on behind closed doors. they're meeting here on saturday in an urgent session, ban ki-moon has issued statements on concern on many countries in crisis over his six year office. there may be an open formal meeting where there could be angry opening speeches. the first meeting will be closed doors here at the united nations. there are articles in the u.n. charter that say that the u.n. security council has the right to get involved when international peace and security

is threatened. this is at the heart of what the u.n. was originally set up for over 65 years ago when one country moves forces into another. things have changed a lot with terrorism and offstage actors as they're known. we'll see if the security council has any power in this issue, wolf. >> we'll see what happens if the security council issues statements. the members of the security county still are there right now getting ready for this emergency meeting. >> the ambassador relishes the spotlight, he gives the most spontaneous, candid comments pointed as they are at the u.s. security council stakeout. he kind of dismisses the secretary general's envoy to ukraine and says it's still a serious matter. but he says russia has the right to do what it wants to based on previous agreements with the

ukraine. >> i assume the u.s. ambassador powell is there. >> she's found herself in a lot of crises, in her short time in office here. this is old style u.n. emergency sessions involving two different countries, with widespread impact should something happen on the ground. >> i remember covering a lot of those meetings in the '80s during the so-called battle days, the height of the cold war. >> we had a 1:00 a.m. meeting on a august 9 of 2008 when russia went into georgia. that was a true emergency meeting overnight. we don't know what's in store in the days ahead. >> we certainly don't. thanks very much richard roth at the university. so we heard the spokesman for the u.n. secretary general issue a statement saying the secretary

g is gravely concerned about what's going on. how is this playing in moscow? >> i don't think that that's one of the main, sort of, areas that moscow is looking at right now. certainly vladimir putin is going to be speaking to secretary general ban ki-moon, but i don't think that's going to significantly change the course of rush shasian politics. right now what the russians are trying to do is they're trying to decide for themselves what sort of end game they have in mind here. it's interesting that you were talking to diana before about what exactly could be the future for this crimea region. what exactly is russian trying to achieve there? does it want to separate itself from the ukraine? does it want to become more autonomous? those are the real questions that the russians are going to be asking right now. what we have been able to see is that what's going on there on the ground, it's hard to imagine that that is anything else but

orchestrated by moscow. if you see the forces that came out there, the way they were disciplined. the interesting thing was, the earliest check points that were set up there were set up by a biker gang were set up by vladimir putin. all of a sudden they surfaced in that area and they started setting up checkpoints together with the local police. clearly the russians have been planning this for a while. this has been going on for a while and it's now come to this stage where we're seeing this overt military action that they have now waved through that you are own parliament. so the u.n. is one of the place where there will be talking going on, there will be statements going on, vladimir putin is going to be talking to the secretary general. but the decision making is something that happens at the kremlin as to what the russian strategic interests are in crimea. those are the real issues that

the russians have right now. that's the real planning of what they're thinking about right now, wolf. >> don't go too far away, let's go get some perspective now on what's going on, some context, angela is joining us, she's the director of the center for russian studies for georgetown university in washington. so you heard the spokesman for the united nations secretary general make a pretty strong statement saying that ban ki-moon is gravely concerned about what's going on and will be speaking to putin. putin, you have met with him on many occasions, professor. putin believes that the russians are right, that the rest of the european union, nato and the russians are all right. >> this is his upper most priority to make sure that this region is either completely separate from ukraine or at least much more autonomous than

it was before to try and exercise as much influence as he can, russia can over the former soviet states. we have to understand that there's very little leverage that we have. and even if people don't go to the g-8 summit, it's clearly much more important for putin to make a stand with the ukraine is much more important than if someone attends the g-8 summit. none of these things amount to great leverage that we have over russia and russia has, as all your correspondents have said, a very direct and a very strong interest in crimea, in ukraine and it's much greater than any other country has. >> it seems to me, and i want to take a quick break, professor, but it seems to me in the old days of the cold war when there were these kinds of tensions there was a hot line between moscow and russia, that phone,

that red phone as it was called, the leaders of the united states and russia would get on and talk. is it a possibility that the president of the united states would have this kind of conversation with putin? >> well, we do still have a hot line and we know that president obama spoke for an hour with president putin last week. but frankly, ever since the russians granted political asylum to edward snowden in russia, the u.s.-russian relationship has really deteriorated, they don't talk very often. there is a hot line, i'm sure they'll use it. people would like to deescalate the tensions, but we have now the worst relationship we have had at least since the russia-georgia war and it doesn't look like it's going to get much better. >> that happened in 2008. we're going to continue to follow the breaking news out of the ukraine, this is a fast moving story, we saw the president's national security advisors emerge from an emergency meeting over at the white house. we'll resume our coverage right after this.

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i'm wolf blitzer, we want to once again welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. we're following the breaking news in the ukraine. just a moment ago, a spokesman for the u.n. secretary general saying that the secretary general is gravely concerned about the situation in ukraine and the secretary general making sure he wants to reiterate his call calling for full respect of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the ukraine. clear, direct message to the russian president vladimir putin. russian troops are already in at least small numbers are already in crimea. christiane amanpour is joining

us from lontd right now. christianne, it seems that the president of the united states issues a strong warning, now the unsecretary general, there's been emergency meetings involving the president's top national security a advisers in the white house. we anticipate a statement coming from the who is very soon. this situation seems to be escalating very dramatically and not in the right direction. wolf, you're absolutely right, it's absolutely alarming what russian is down, and direct warnings from the u.n. secretary general, from all the western and security council governments direct warning not to intervene in ukraine, a sovereign nation under which 1994 treaty, russia is bound not to intervene and bound to respect his territorial integrity. they haven't taken a decision on whether to accept the clearly staged russian parliamentary

vote to call for intervention in crimea to protect russians there. but it doesn't really matter because everybody believes that a certain amount of russian forces, whatever uniforms they're dressed up in are in ukraine right now, this violates u.s. and russian laws about invading other countries. it's the very thing that russia is always on about in the international community, that no, we can't see any other countries invading, it's all about what's going on in syria and everywhere right now. so it's absolutely unbelievable that russia would be doing this right now and there is no legal basis for it. so the united states needs to leave all the other countries in the security council in the west, like minded countries need to put their maximum pressure on and there is pressure, there is leverage. trade leverage, things that could affect the ruble, things that could affect the russian economy and also the ukrainian government now, the interim government need not, repeat not

to launch any kind of military response, if they do, just like what happened in georgia, they will be crushed by the russians and they need not to do that. and beyond that, the ukrainians need to figure out how to reassure russia that it's rights will be respected because naval fleet will be respected. and they need to again reassure the russians in crimea that their rilings will be respected. so maximum diplomacy and maximum leverage right now from all who have it needs to be exerted. >> yes, there are small numbers of russian troops already in crimea, the russians have port facilities there, a warm water port. but there's 150,000 russian troops engaged in military kp

exercises right now. they could move into ukraine very, very quickly and that would dramatically, dramatically escalate this crisis. >> and all of this that i was just suggesting needs to happen so that that does not happen. it's very alarming, it's alarming because clearly russia is not speaking with one voice, if we're to believe what secretary of state kerry has said, what the british and the fench officials said, they were assured boy ty the russian fore minister that there would be no military intervention. then you have the parliament taking action you've got the forces that somehow seem to be aligned with russia, militias that do their bidding there, and they're more sophisticated than just militias, they're there violating a promise that they made that they wouldn't be there. russians have told the world that they would not be

intervening militarily. they've got these military exercises that they say were co-incidental as you say, not only 150,000 troops, but hundreds of tanks and aircrafts and dozen of artillery and other kinds of weaponry that's happening there. they are flexing their muscle, the question is how hard are they going to flex and how far are they going to take this flexing and will robust diplomacy go to work right now to use all the leverage possible and to stop, you know, sort of -- i'm sorry, but not standing up to russia's moves which russia has been pulling these kinds of months for a long time now, whether it's over syria or whether it's over all sorts of issues and they need to be told where the red line is. >> the problem is credibility. as you know, christianne, does the west, the nato allies, the european union, the united states, do they have that kind

of credibility with putin that if we were to take such action there would be a response? because presumably, he's saying to himself, you know what? they can cancel the g-8 summit in june, what's so much more important to putin is having control over at least the crimea area of the ukraine. >> unfortunately, under international law, the russians don't have that right, it is a violation of international law and everybody knows it. we have been talking since monday when all of this started with all of the officials and interlo interlockutores who tried to make this deal to try to resolve the crisis what happened last weekend and they told us it is this 1994 law that spells it out in black and white enshrined by

the united nations, the effort torl integrity must be respected. russia signed it along with the united states. and i know you've been discussing this a lot over the last 24 to 48 hours, and this is because the -- in return, they were guaranteed these protections. at the same time, the rights and the protect shung of the ethnic russians need to be protected and presumably, russia's long-term having this black sea fleet also needs to be respected. all of that has to happen by diplomacy and not by military action. if russia moves in, this is going to be a multi-year problem to get them out again. and it puts russia then outside the realm of international law. and russia of course is the country that's always preaching to the rest of the world, as i say, syria, the most recent

example of not intervening in other countries and not invading other countries do it's a very serious situation right now and very serious and creative diplomacy as to start and presumably it's under way and the u.s. and its allies have to be there to support it. >> they were going through other diplomatic options when they were meeting in the west wing in the white house moments ago, the president's top national security advisors. >> the point is, a all of us are alarmed that just yesterday the united states and others were saying we see no preparations, no sort of, you know, the preparations i guess for russian invasion, and then we hear all these developments today. now there hasn't yet been a major russian invasion, but clearly, by sleight of hand, they can do a lot of damage in terms of putting troops,

personnel and people in there. everybody needs to take a step back and resolve this situation diplomatically, there was no it the kind of attacks against ethnic russians in crimea that in any event required any kind of emergency action by russia of a military sort whatsoever. >> i want to show you some video, this is from crimea, these were pro russian demonstrators in russia and remember the crimea area, that was actually in new york. here's the video from crimea, christianne, here's what the russian argument is, and this is what i have heard from various sources close to the russians, they're saying, look, they're inviting russian help because -- this is what they're arguing, i'm just giving you the rush shank argument that they still recognize the ousted ukrainian

president as the duly elected, democratic president of ukraine. he's obviously got limited authority, limbed power. he's now seen by the ukrainian parliament in effect a war criminal. but the russians are arguing he's still the president of ukraine. he wants help from russia, the ethnic russians in crimea want help and that's why the russians are justified in doing what they're doing. that is the russian argument that putin will make. >> reporter: probably. and probably those self-appointed officials now in the crimea region are making the same argument, as we know they are making that argument. the only problem with that is that it lies outside the bounds of international law and it does not seem to be any major reason for that to happen. there have not been mass killings of people in crimea like there were in kiev which

presip tated the fleeing of coe vich and the arrest warrant that's being put out for him now. the fact that he's on the lam, yes, he's saying he's still the president, but they have an interim government in kiev, it's supported by the west, you have conversations between vice president bidening and the interim prime minister, yatsenyuk yatsenyou have a date new elections, again, crimea has a certain amount of autonomy, but it is not an independent state that can call for a foreign country, a foreign country to invade it's borders, no matter what russia believes about it's near broad or it's atmosphere sphere of influence and this has brought major problems between russia and the west for the last many, many years. as you can see, what happened in georgia, of course russia does have the military might. and if the ukrainians try to

take on any russian intervention, they will be crushed. so again, the interim ukrainian government needs to assure all those in crimea plus russia, it only has the crimea interests at heart, it will allow it to keep its flee for so many number of years, however they decide to deal with this in the future. at the same time, the international sovereignty of the ukraine, under law, signed in 1994, by the united states, britain and russia is the law, and i'm afraid, under the current law, unless i'm mistaken, crimea has no right to invite another country? >> we're going to continue the breaking news coverage out of ukraine, and i anticipate there will be a statement coming from the white house fairly soon, much more of our coverage right

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we're following the breaking news out of ukraine, escalating very tense situation unfolding, we're tracking some of the major developments in this situation. christianne amanpour is joining us once again from london, our chief international correspondent. when we see this situation, it reminds me of the battle days of the cold war, some are making comparisons to bosnia, kosovo and others. how concerned that this could really get out of control? >> reporter: i don't see any similarity at all to bosnia, kosovo and all the rest of it. it's very similar to the u.s. invading iraq, if you want to tahe